Second period dooms Sharks in loss to Rangers, first game without Thornton

SAN JOSE — The Sharks generated the kind of quality offensive chances they were looking for Thursday night in their first game of the season without Joe Thornton. Their problem, though, was preventing those same golden opportunities in their own end of the rink.

The Sharks allowed three straight second period goals, including one on the power play and another shorthanded, in a 6-5 loss to the New York Rangers at SAP Center, their final game before the start of the NHL’s all-star break this weekend.

“Just bad defensive hockey,” said Sharks center Logan Couture, who scored twice and now has 20 for the season. “They could have had more than six tonight. I don’t know if we were cheating for offense or what was going on there, because we were giving them way too much.”

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Sharks goalie Aaron Dell allowed five goals on 23 shots in the first two periods, marking the first time in 42-career NHL appearances that he’s given up more than two goals in back-to-back games. Dell also started Tuesday’s game against Winnipeg, a 5-4 overtime loss to the Jets.

He was far from being the only culprit on defense, though, as the Sharks finished a stretch in which they played eight games in 13 days with a 5-2-1 record.

“It was a pretty sloppy game defensively, just in general out there,” Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic said. “A lot of chances on both sides.”

Couture’s second even-strength marker at the 2:36 mark of the second period gave the Sharks a 3-2 lead. But the Rangers answered in rapid-fire fashion, scoring three times in a span of 6:05 to take a two-goal lead into the second intermission.

Ryan McDonagh scored goals 1:12 apart with his second, a power play goal on a shot from the blue line that got through traffic and a screened Dell, giving the Rangers a 4-3 lead. Then with the Sharks on a power play, the Rangers took advantage of an odd-man rush the other way, with the rebound of a Michael Grabner shot going off Brady Skjei’s shin pad and past Dell for a 5-3 lead for New York.

Barclay Goodrow opened the scoring in the first period for the Sharks, and Vlasic scored his eighth of the season with 9:09 to go in the third period to cut the Rangers’ lead to 5-4. Vlasic also assisted on Couture’s second goal.

J.T. Miller scored to give the Rangers a 6-4 lead with 1:50 left in the third. Tomas Hertl capped the scoring with a tap-in goal with 50 seconds to go.

The Sharks have allowed five goals in three of their last five games, starting with a 5-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche last Thursday.

The Sharks announced just prior to Thursday’s game that Thornton will be out indefinitely after he underwent arthroscopic surgery to address an issue with his injured right medial collateral ligament.

“As much as it hurts to play a game without the big guy, you’ve got to step up and other guys got to run with the opportunity,” Couture said. “You’re up here in this organization, and you’ve got an opportunity up here, you better come up and give it all you got. It’s a good time to make an impression right now.”

It is not known when Thornton might resume skating or playing, although Sharks general manager Doug Wilson said Wednesday that Thornton’s injury would cause him miss “several weeks.”

“I’m sure he’s not going to be back anytime soon,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “We’re not looking a month, two months ahead right now. We’re worried about getting a little rest on this break and kind of jumping right back into it. So, we’ve got to be ready. You can’t look too far ahead.”

Sharks coach Pete DeBoer had a few options as to how he wanted to adjust his forward lines without Thornton available.

DeBoer left the second line of Couture, Tomas Hertl and Kevin Labanc alone. Labanc assisted on both of Couture’s goals, and the trio generated their share of scoring chances, particularly in the early going.

“It’s a fact of life in the NHL. We’ve been here before,” DeBoer said about Thornton’s injury. “We’ve been here with Joe, we’ve been here with Logan. We’ve been here with (Vlasic) at different times. We’ve been here with (Martin Jones) recently. Those are the facts. There’s not much you can say. Our group, it’s got to be next guy up and let’s figure out a way to fill the void and get the job done.”

Entering the break, the Sharks are in second place in the Pacific Division with 59 points, one more than Calgary and two more than Los Angeles and Anaheim. Colorado, also with 57 points, holds the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference.

The Sharks (26-15-7) resume play against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, when they will start a five-game road trip that also takes them through Detroit, Columbus, Carolina and finally Colorado.

“I am pleased, but that doesn’t get you anything,” DeBoer said when asked about where his team sits right now. “We’ve got a long way to go and a tough stretch. You give yourself a pat on the back for being in the mix at the all-star break, but the heavy lifting is still ahead.”